usually leads to trouble.”
When I woke the next morning, Kade was gone. I stretched
and felt a rare moment of contentment before getting up to
find him. Halfway down the steps, his mother’s voice reached
me. I slowed.
“Sounds like wishful thinking—harvesting Kaya’s soul.
Honestly, Kade, you’re a Stormdancer not a Soulfinder. You
didn’t have these delusions about your abilities before you met that girl or got that horse. All this running around, for what?
Nothing.”
I cringed for Kade. Deeper issues lay between him and his
mother, and I might have made it worse. His reply was too
quiet for me to decipher.
“Why can’t you pick someone like Helen? She’s beautiful,
talented…”
Unable to endure any more, I hurried through the living
room and out the front door. When had she met Helen? I
thought the Stormdancer’s new orb maker worked in Thunder
Valley during the off-season, selling her glasswares.
Helen was pretty and her glass statues were unparalleled
works of art. And she was sweet. And she spent three full
seasons working with Kade. I stopped that line of thought.
Despite all the pain I caused, he had stayed with me. Love
trumps logic.
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I found Quartz and Moonlight grazing behind the shed.
Her copper-and-white coat looked fuzzy and unkempt. Shed-
ding season. I retrieved a shedding blade from my saddlebags
and pulled the thin metal loop through her thick cold season
coat. Hair rained to the ground, piling around her hooves like
drifts of snow.
Kade arrived. He groaned with annoyance. “I combed her
last night.” He gestured to the piles of hair. “Not that you
would know it.”
Moonlight snuff led Kade’s hair and sneezed.
“Ugh.” Kade wiped his face on his sleeve. “Good morning
to you, too.” He scratched the horse behind his ears and then
sighed when he noticed the black hairs sticking to his hand.
“Now he’s shedding.”
I ducked behind Quartz to hide my smile, but Kade joined
me. “I’ll finish grooming Quartz. You need to get cleaned
up.” He wiped horsehair off my chin.
“For
what?”
“Shopping with my mother,” he deadpanned.
“But
she—”
“Agreed to spend time with you for my sake.”
“But I heard…”
He tilted his head, waiting.
“Er…I only caught a sentence or two, but I don’t think my
idea to tell her about Kaya worked.”
“Nothing’s a quick fix, Opal. But it was a step in the right
direction. After I reminded her about her own often-repeated
advice to not jump to conclusions about new people, she
thought a day in town with you would be acceptable.”
“But, I don’t need anything.”
“Really? I thought you needed a dress for Mara’s
wedding.”
It was my turn to groan. Dress shopping with Kade’s
mother. Kill me now. The alternative—arriving home with-
out a gown—was equally unappealing.
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Maria V. Snyder
“Okay, but I’m taking my switchblade along.”
“To defend yourself against my mother?” he asked with an
incredulous tone.
“No. To slit my throat if the day goes badly.”
He laughed. “Make sure you don’t bleed in front of her.
She faints at the sight of blood.”
“I’m
so glad you have your priorities straight,” I said. My
voice dripped with sarcasm.
Unaffected he pushed me toward the house. “You’ll have…
Well, you’ll have an interesting day at least. And you should
listen to my mother. She has an excellent eye for color.”
Sarrah eyed my short locks as we walked to town. “First
stop, the hairdresser. Those dark roots look awful.”
I sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. It was going
to be a very long afternoon. When we arrived in the town of
Cumulus, I followed Kade’s instruction and listened to Sarrah,
letting the hairdresser return my hair to its natural color. I
tried to ask Sarrah questions about her life in an effort to get to know her better, but she either ignored me or gave me a
vague answer that implied that I really didn’t want to know
so why should she bother.
The dress shop was busy. Sales staff hustled, and the seam-
stress fretted over her customers with a measuring ribbon. I
didn’t have time for a custom-made gown, so we searched
through the racks of finished pieces.
When I moved to the back row, Sarrah stopped me. “Kade
can’t afford those. They’re silk. If we can’t find something here, we can ask if they have any other cheap or rejected gowns.”
I blinked at her a moment. Did she just say Kade? Did
she actually think I would let Kade pay for my gown? Or I
needed him to pay for it? Her opinion of me was worse than
I imagined. I endured her abuse for two reasons—guilt over
Devlen and keeping the peace for Kade. No longer.
“Outside,” I said. “Now.”
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She fussed about wasting time as she followed me. Sur-
rounded by indigo fields, Cumulus’s entire downtown area
fit within a two-block radius. I stopped at the edge of town
and turned to her.
“I get it. You don’t like me. That’s fine. But you’re making
the wrong assumptions about me and that isn’t fine. Kade and I are together. We’re not going to change because you don’t
like it. And I’m no longer ignoring all your snide comments.
If you don’t have anything constructive to say, then keep your
mouth shut.”
“Or what?” She crossed her arms, daring me.
“Or I’ll leave and I’ll take Kade with me. He wants us to
spend more time together, but if you’re going to continue to
be nasty, then it won’t be here with you.”
“Finally!”
Not the reaction I expected. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t like you, Opal. But weak people who don’t defend
themselves I like even less. Come on.” She hurried down the
street.
I rushed to catch up. We passed the dress shop. She cut
down an alley and knocked on the back entrance of a resi-
dence. When the door opened, a young lady peeked out.
Laughter, shrieks and wails of children sounded behind her.
A mane of blond hair framed her round face and she wore old
clothes. A row of straight pins had been stuck in her shirt.
She smiled and greeted Sarrah as if they were old friends,
then invited us in. The comfortable living area had been in-
vaded by romping children. We bypassed the troops and she
led us to a quieter sewing room.
Sarrah introduced us. “Tori, this is Opal, Kade’s…friend.
She needs a gown right away. Do you still have the one you
made for Anya?”
Tori frowned. “Yes. After all that work, she changed her
mind and wouldn’t pay for it! And you had mixed me such
a
gorgeous color.”
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“I think Opal is her size.”
She scanned me and squealed, dashing for a closet. After
sorting through it, Tori pulled out a gorgeous emerald-green
gown. Simple and elegant, the sleeveless V-neck bodice was
lined with lace and crystals. From the waist down, layers of silk overlapped with crystals sewn along the ends of each layer.
Tori handed me the gown. “Try it on in there.” She pointed
to a curtain.
Behind the material, I found a small changing room with
a bench and mirror. Careful not to rip the fabric, I squirmed
into it. The cool caress of silk touched my skin. I loved it.
When I came out, Tori squealed again.
Sarrah said, “It’s a little big.”
“Minor adjustments,” Tori said as she tugged and pulled.
“I’ll take it in around the waist and shorten the straps. A few hours at most.” She used the straight pins in her shirt to mark the changes. “Oh my.”
The rows of scars on my arms had caught her attention.
Sarrah also noticed. Great.
Tori patted my shoulder. “No problem. I have a pair of
long white gloves and some extra dye. Plus I can dye a pair of
shoes to match. Can you wait until tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
She quoted a price and I paid her without looking at Kade’s
mother. It was the most expensive garment I ever bought, but
it was worth every extra silver.
Mission accomplished, we walked back to Sarrah’s house.
We didn’t talk, but it was a comfortable silence. When we
arrived at the kitchen door, I thanked her for taking me to
Tori’s.
She nodded. “It’s the perfect color for you.” Then she went
inside.
Her comment reminded me of a similar one from Valek
three seasons ago. He was going to be smug and all I-told-
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203
you-so when he saw me in emerald green. I still hated him and
thought he was evil, but the man did have an eye for color.
Early the next morning Heli visited. At seventeen, she was
the youngest Stormdancer, and her enthusiasm for life was
contagious. Bounding into the kitchen with a wide smile,
her energy spread to all of us in the room, including Sarrah.
I marveled at the first sign of happiness from Kade’s mother.
“Opal,” Heli cried, spotting me sitting at the table. “Good
to see you! Are you why Kade sent me a message?”
I glanced at Kade.
He f lipped sweet cakes. “One of the reasons,” he said.
Sarrah set another place at the table. “Stay for breakfast.”
She tsked at Heli. “So thin! You need to eat more.”
Heli plopped into the chair next to mine and rolled her
eyes. “You sound just like my mother.”
“At least no one nags you on the coast,” I said.
“I wish.” Heli sighed dramatically. “If Kade isn’t fussing at
me about something, Raiden thinks he’s my surrogate father.
It’s why I spend so much time on the beach.”
“So you don’t really like hunting for treasures from the
sea?” I asked.
She slapped the table. “That reminds me! Remember that
sea glass I found?”
Hard to forget the glass that had caused everyone to fight
over it. A magical compulsion had been attached to it by an
uncontrolled young magician named Quinn. I wondered if he
could purposely attach magic to glass now that he should have
control over his power. Then I recalled the cold glass Mister
Paul had in Hubal. The two bits of information linked and I
felt as if I’d been smacked. If Quinn made the cold glass, he
might be able to do more.
“Opal? It wasn’t that hard a question,” Heli said.
I pulled my thoughts back.
Heli waited for my answer.
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“Sorry. What was the question?” I asked.
“Sea
glass?”
“Of course. What about it?”
“I’m this close to deciphering the message scratched on the
pieces.” Heli held up her finger and thumb with a half-inch
gap between them.
“But the markings were just a way for Quinn to keep track
of his collection.”
“Did he tell you that?” she asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“From your description of the Bloodrose family, I think
the glass was a call for help.”
I shook my head. “Heli, the family was… All right, they
were creepy, but I didn’t see anything illegal going on.
They’re just oyster farmers who don’t want to be bothered by
outsiders.”
Kade served the sweet cakes. “That sea glass already caused
enough trouble, Heli. Just leave it alone.”
She snapped her mouth shut, but the gleam in her eyes
gave away her intentions to continue despite Kade’s order.
Ah. Youth.
After breakfast, Sarrah and Ink went to the shed, and I
cleaned up while Kade and Heli discussed the upcoming storm
season.
When she shrieked with delight, I looked over. Kade wore
his sternest frown, but Heli practically bounced in her seat.
“It’s a huge responsibility,” Kade said. “Their safety is in
your hands. If anything should happen—”
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen. I’ve got it cov-
ered. Thanks, Kade. Have a great trip!” She hugged him
around the neck, waved goodbye to me and dashed off.
“That may have been a mistake,” Kade said.
“What?”
“I’ve put her in charge of the Stormdancers until I arrive
on the coast.”
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205
The other three dancers were older and more experienced.
“Why?”
“She’s the strongest of the four, and when it comes to un-
predictable storms, brute strength can be more valuable than
experience.”
“At least it’s the heating season.” The storms were milder
in comparison to the cooling season. “She’ll be fine.” Then I
grinned.
“Should I even ask?”
“You may have an…interesting reception when you return.
I’m sure Prin and Raiden will not be happy about the new
boss.”
He laughed. “She’ll drive them crazy. Good. Maybe they’ll
appreciate me more.”
Kade and I left the next morning for Booruby. Fitting a silk
gown into my packs wouldn’t work, so I had to tie the box to
Quartz’s saddle. There were twelve days until Mara’s wedding
and it would take us seven to reach my house, leaving five
days for me to help my mother. I was in big trouble.
I set a quick pace. When we arrived at my family’s home,
I paused before pushing through the gate. The house seemed
quiet. White smoke billowed from the glass factory’s chimneys.
No one was in sight. Our courtyard had been transformed for
the wedding ceremony and reception. Large arches decorated
the space, tables and chairs had been set up and a fabric ceiling hung above the yard to protect ever
ything from the rain.
Leading Quartz and Moonlight to the shed/stable, I realized
Kade had never been here before. I pointed out the various
buildings. We removed the horses’ saddles and rubbed them
down. As soon as we finished, they trotted into the Avibian
Plains. The grasses in the plains had returned to green and
their long stalks rippled in the breeze.
When I could delay no longer, I headed toward the house.
It was time to face my mother’s wrath.
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Maria V. Snyder
“Perhaps I should wait outside,” Kade said.
“Oh no.” I grabbed his hand. “She can’t kill me if there is
a witness.”
“I think you’re exaggerating. It won’t be that bad.”
I steeled myself and stepped into the kitchen—also known
as wedding central. My mother bustled about the hearth, stir-
ring pots and baking pies. I called a hello.
She turned and gave me a cold stare. “Can I help you,
miss?”
“Mom—”
“Excuse me? You must be mistaken. I’m not your mother.
No. Because my daughter wouldn’t be so inconsiderate as to arrive so late for her own sister’s wedding. Especially when
she knows how much work is involved. No. I’m afraid my
daughter is lying dead in a ditch somewhere.”
I expected my mother to be mad at me for arriving so close to the wedding, but I didn’t think she’d be so melo-dramatic. “Mom, I’m—”
“Hello, Kade,” she said, ignoring me to give him a welcom-
ing hug. “I’m sorry about Opal’s tragic demise, but I’m sure
you’ll find someone more reliable and considerate. Perhaps
one of Mara’s friends—”
“Mother!”
She didn’t miss a beat. “—would suit you. She invited all
of them, and some are still single and quite pretty. There is
an extra bed in Ahir’s room for you. Make yourself at home.
Supper will be ready in a few hours.” With that, she returned
to her cooking.
She didn’t murder me, but I wanted to either die or kill her.
Hard to tell. “Five days is plenty of time, Mom. Mara and Leif
aren’t even here yet,” I said to her back.
Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “Kade, by the time
you’re settled, Leif should be back with the tablecloths. Could you help him? Mara is busy helping her father make the cen-terpieces in the factory.”
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He looked a little queasy. “Uh…sure.”
Giving up, I showed Kade my brother’s room. There were
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